SARS find, weaker dollar hits Europe

French conglomerate Bouygues higher after 9-mo. profits

LONDON (CBS.MW) -- European markets finished lower Wednesday despite overnight rally on Wall Street, as a discovery of SARS in Taiwan, a weaker U.S. dollar and critical broker comments on top German companies cast a shadow over markets.

The German DAX Xetra 30 index (1876534) declined 0.5 percent to 3,847 and the French CAC 40 index (1804546) eased 0.2 percent to 3,479. London markets managed a slight rise behind oil majors. See London markets.

U.S. stock markets were slightly after a triple digit rise in blue chips overnight. See market snapshot.

A discovery of SARS in Taiwan, from a researcher visiting Singapore, hurt Asian stocks, and helped to curb European stocks as well. See Taiwan SARS impact.

The euro in afternoon trade set a new high vs. the U.S. dollar, rising to as much as $1.2385, hurting European exporters. Consumer electronics groups Thomson (018453)
TMS, +16.67%
and Philips Electronics (00953)
PHG, +0.45%
both declined around 3 percent.

Memory chip maker Infineon Technologies (623100)
IFX, -1.41%
extended Tuesday's losses, dipping 2.5 percent, on concerns over how much in equity financing the chipmaker will seek from investors and also on worries over lower DRAM prices.

The mainstream DRAM 256 megabyte spot prices has declined by 16 percent since the end of September, according to figures from BNP Paribas, which cut its earnings estimates Wednesday.

A downgrade from Deutsche Bank curbed German steel group ThyssenKrupp (750000) by 5 percent, as Deutsche said a recovery next year is already priced into the stock.

Bouygues higher

French conglomerate Bouygues (012050) rose 0.2 percent after it said nine month net profits rose 23 percent on a comparable basis to 341 million euros, amid surging earnings at Bouygues Telecom and 40-percent owned television channel TF1 (005490). The figures exclude the impact of the sale of Bouygues Offshore in 2002. Sales eased 1 percent to 16.055 billion euros.

Of its key divisions, excluding capital gains from disposal sales, Bouygues Telecom net profit rose 46 percent to 131 million euros, TF1 rose 28 percent to 60 million euros, Colas eased 4 percent to 124 million euros and Construction saw no profit after a 6 million euro gain a year ago.

"These results come as no real surprise, other than the stronger-than-expected generation of cash flow," said BNP Paribas analyst Laurent Mathieu.

Dutch telecom KPN (00908)
KPN, -2.20%
rose 2.3 percent and logistics group TPG (00905)
TP, -0.22%
was flat amid the European Union suing the Dutch government over the country's 'golden shares' that prevent takeovers without the government's authorization.

Credit Agricole (004507) was higher amid a Reuters report that it was one of three banks chosen to underwrite an IPO in 2004 from BioMerieux, a biotech diagnostic company that is expected to raise more than 1.2 billion euros when it goes public. Lazard and Goldman Sachs also will be in on the deal, the report said.

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